Sunday, August 3, 2008

View from the pace car

The IF women were looking sharp at the start! From left: Silke Wunderwald, Leah Pappas-Barnes (a racer who also works at IF), Brenda Bahnson, and Pauline Frascone.

Rather than racing today at the Central New Hampshire Road Race (Bow), I drove the pace car for a couple of races. (This race is put on by my local club, NEBC.) This gave me an excellent view of the women's field. The women did four laps of an 11-mile loop, often racing in the rain.

This is a hilly, selective course, and Mary Zider's (NEBC) attack up to the QOM on the second lap shed several riders and created the winning break. Mary was soon joined by Silke Wunderwald and the two worked together to establish a many-minute gap over the pack.

The pair worked together until the very end. In a very closely fought sprint, Silke was second by a tire-width. Pauline, still a bit sore from yesterday's crash, opted to stop early and work the feed zone. Brenda's climbing prowess was quite evident during the race, and she finished very strongly in the small pack of riders who survived -- nearly one-third of the starters did not finish at all!